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A Very GNV Holiday Parade
Challenge:
Create a Holiday Parade
In September 2023, the Gainesville City Commission voted to have a holiday parade, it would be the community's first in more than three decades.
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The vote was influenced by this slide presentation I led my team in creating at the request of parade champion, Gainesville City Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut.
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The date would be December 2, less than three months away. I was tapped as one of two parade project leads as well as the communications lead.
Strategy
Leverage Partnerships
As the Fiscal Year 2024 budget (which took effect on October 1) did not include parade funding, this would be a celebration relying heavily on sponsorship contributions.
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Commissioner Chestnut spearheaded fundraising and we produced the collateral: sponsorship appeal letters and a sponsorship packet. We then collaborated with the Greater Gainesville Chamber of Commerce to act as fiscal agent, accepting the sponsorship contributions. As the Chamber is a 501c3, that helped drive tax-deductible end-of-year giving.
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To build a set of expectations, rules and logistics for parade participants, my assistant director and I did online research on peer city parades and I also reached out to former partners at the Town of Wake Forest, NC. We copied elements of their Christmas Parade structure to get our initial planning off the ground.
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Working at warp speed, the communications team handled everything, everywhere, all at once. By October we had produced branding, a webpage, a registration packet and a set of parade guidelines.
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Relying on our city staff for energy and originality, we ran an internal "Name the Parade" campaign. The winning entry came from our historic preservation planner, who submitted "A Very GNV Holiday Parade." We celebrated her selection by sending a staffer to her office dressed as an elf, videoed the elf presenting her with a gift bag, and posted the whole thing on social to boost public interest.
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Next, we introduced the promotional campaign with news releases, media advisories and social media posts. We shot a video promotion with the parade grand marshal (Former Florida Gators Football Coach Steve Spurrier). Soon we had participant registrations flowing in through the online form.​
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Calling this a parade "by the community, for the community," we leveraged connections with nonprofit groups, the school system, faith-based organizations, civic clubs and others to appear in our parade and to serve as parade volunteers (coordinated through a parallel communications campaign).
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By the day of the parade, we had a lineup of 90 units and 5,000 spectators lining the route along University Avenue. We had coordinated additional material including parade signage, parade program booklets, badges for sponsors and VIPS, swag bags and more. We had organized a pre-parade dignitary brunch, a parade announcer, and a parade broadcast.
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Outreach Strategies
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The work to publicize the event and inform the community adhered to the following categories:
Results
Engagement Metrics
Social Media Analytics
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Social media and website analytics helped us gauge community interest and engagement in the weeks leading up to and including the parade. Due to budget constraints, the City purchased no advertising and relied on organic engagement. A sampling of analytics
shows positive results.
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The ten parade posts on Facebook delivered total engagement of 30,370.
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The parade livestream on Facebook had a reach of 8,142.
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The seven parade posts on Instagram delivered total engagement of 11,448.
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The first promotional video on Instagram reached 52.85% of followers.
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The parade page was the third most popular on the City’s website during this timeframe
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with 19,878 total visits.
Sponsorships and Partners
A total of 35 sponsors provided cash or in-kind support.
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This included three title sponsors ($10,000+), three gold sponsors ($5,000), four silver sponsors ($2,500) and 25 sapphire sponsors ($1,500). The Greater Gainesville Chamber Foundation provided a final accounting of $96,125 total donations. The cash total was $65,500 and the value of in-kind donations was $30,625.
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In addition to the Gainesville Chamber, major partners included Santa Fe College, the University of Florida and Alachua County Public Schools. All sponsors were recognized on the City’s website and social media, on banners and signage, and in news releases and print materials.
In-kind donations from radio stations and cable television assisted with parade advertising:
Station Ads Run
COX Cable 1,259
MARC Radio 425
WYKS-FM 34
WAJD-AM 34
Parade Attendance
With 92 individual units (many comprised of school groups, bands, church organizations and clubs), there were an estimated 1,000 people marching, rolling or dancing down the mile-long parade route. Spectators lined most parts of University Avenue for the duration, raising crowd estimates to an unofficial count of 5,000 total.
There is evidence the parade created a holdover crowd that remained in the downtown area for the two previously established holiday events that followed. The Kids Dance Party at Bo Diddley Plaza had an estimated increased attendance of 150 over the previous year, bringing the total to approximately 350. The Thomas Center Tree Lighting had an estimated increased attendance of 500 over the previous year, bringing the total to approximately 1,500.
Lessons
After-Action Items
The entire endeavor was a learning experience, though most aspects went surprisingly well. I led my team in compiling an After-Action Report to assist with streamlining the planning and execution of the second annual A Very GNV Holiday Parade, which took place on Saturday, December 7, 2024.
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Improvements ranged from bringing in a step and repeat to serve as the announcer's backdrop to revising sponsorship deadlines and even recalibrating the marching pace of the units (list is here).
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Our operation was sufficiently professional to grow into a larger parade in just one year: we attracted 110 parade units and Shaquille O'Neal as grand marshal.
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Coach Steve Spurrier
2023 Parade Grand Marshal
Shaquille O'Neal
2024 Parade Grand Marshal
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